CVE-2024-0406
Path Traversal in Mholt Archiver 3.0.0 – 4.0.0
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:NSummary
CVE-2024-0406 is a medium-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Mholt Archiver. Its CVSS base score is 6.1 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 43% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
The vulnerability CVE-2024-0406 is a path traversal flaw (CWE-22) in the mholt/archiver package. A specially crafted tar archive can cause the library to access or write files outside the intended extraction directory during unpacking, enabling creation or overwriting of files using the privileges of the user or application performing the operation. The issue carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 6.1 with local attack vector, low complexity, and required user interaction.
An attacker with the ability to supply a malicious tar file to a victim process can exploit the flaw to achieve unauthorized file writes on the target system. Exploitation requires the target to unpack the archive with the affected library and does not grant direct remote code execution or privilege escalation beyond the permissions of the extracting user.
Red Hat has published security advisories and errata, including RHSA-2025:2449, that reference this CVE for affected products. The current EPSS score stands at 0.2206 with no material increase from its recorded peak.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-1299
Vulnerability Data
A flaw was discovered in the mholt/archiver package. This flaw allows an attacker to create a specially crafted tar file, which, when unpacked, may allow access to restricted files or directories. This issue can allow the creation or overwriting of…
more
files with the user's or application's privileges using the library.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V5.3.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.
Input validation directly neutralizes special path elements before pathname construction occurs.
Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.
PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.
Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.
Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.
Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.
Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.